That Revolutionary War re-enactment I had with the Spitfire’s oil pan a few weeks back was not just for sport: it was part exploratory surgery and part triage to assess the condition of said oil pan. The verdict was not good. Fortunately, a call to the ever helpful chap at Spitbits yielded the part the even they (along with all other suppliers) didn’t list on their site: the mythic oil pan. Sure it was a trifle used, but not as used as the one on my Spitfire. The quasi-solidified, primordial oil-based muck at the bottom of this pan convinced me that the only way to really change the oil in this Spifire was to throw out the pan with the bathwater. (The old oil pan has since been convalescing in my retirement community for parts that will one day be refurbshed and ebay’d).

Pictured here, we’re 1/2 way thru a thorough (albeit messy) oil change (1st in over 10 years) process consisting of: unmounting the engine; jacking up engine; shoehorning old oil pan out from between bottom of block, top of frame crossmember & front of bellhousing.

Down under where the sun don’t shine on a triumph Spitfire – bottom of block flange cleaned & ready to meet the “new” oil pan.